Setting Buddhists Worldwide against Muslims Part of global campaign against Islam and Muslims? By Latheef Farook

It appears the United States, Europe and the   Zionists which successfully managed to put the Christian west and the Hindus in the subcontinent against Muslims are turning their attention to set up Buddhist worldwide against Muslims. 

This is what many columnists and others speculate following the unexpected attacks on Buddhist temples, Buddhists and their houses and commercial units by mysterious elements in Bangladesh. The sole purpose of the attack was to put Muslims against Buddhists in Bangladesh where these two communities

lived like one family for generations. 

On 29 September 2012 some images insulting Islam were tagged in the social media face book of a 25 year old   Buddhist, Uttam Kumar Barua, in the   Ramu Bazaar area South of Bangladesh’s Chittagong district. However the face book user was shocked .He was not aware how the photo appeared in his face book.  He suspected that someone had tagged the photo to his profile- deliberately to create tension between the two communities. 

Since then tension   started building up. The day after on 30 September there were some attacks on Buddhist temples   by unknown people. On October 1   some people torched and vandalized 12 temples including more than three century old Sima Bihar grand monastery. This was supposed to be in response to insulting Islam in the face book.

The Bangladeshi government responded swiftly .On the same day curfew was declared   in the affected areas   and   around 166 people were arrested in different parts of Cox’s Bazar, bordering western Burma’s Arakan (Rakhine) State. 

According to the media soon after the violence started, the man's Facebook account was closed and police escorted Uttam Kumar Barua and his mother to safety. Most of the Buddhist families displaced by the attacks took shelter at the homes of Muslim neighbors who protected and fed them reiterating their age old harmonious relations. 

Muslims and Buddhist in the areas   had told that they were shocked by the attacks because the perpetrators were not the people of the area. They do not know them and leaders of the Buddhist community accused unidentified activists of sowing discord. 

Now the question is who tagged these images insulting Islam into the face book of this Buddhist youth and who were behind the attacks on Buddhist temples. Of course in any country it is not difficult to find mercenaries to create problems.

Reacting promptly Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, called for tough measures to prevent further attacks   and ordered stern punitive actions against the attackers. She called the attacks part of a plot to destroy the traditional communal harmony in the country.

Later, addressing a meeting of Bangladeshi Buddhist leaders at her residence Gono Bhaban Sheikh Hasina assured the minorities when she said the violent attack on Buddhist monasteries and houses   was a premeditated and no one linked to the attacks   will be spared.

She assured that the temples damaged would be rebuilt; victims would get compensation    and will be provided with necessary assistance to make ready the destroyed monasteries for prayers before their 'Prabarana Purnima' at the end of this month and rehabilitation of the affected families including rebuilding of the houses gutted.

Bangladesh Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir in the affected areas 

Besides declaring curfew army troops erected tents for makeshift camps for the victims. Bangladeshi security forces have been deployed in different areas of Cox’s Bazar where Buddhist people live to maintain peace .The government also formed a committee to investigate the violence, with a report due in 10 days.   

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir promptly visited the scene for on the spot inspection.

"We will not leave the scene until the confidence of the Buddhist community is restored completely," Lieutenant Colonel Khalequzzaman of Border Guard Bangladesh told newsmen. Army soldiers, paramilitary border guards and police were deployed, and the government has banned all public gatherings in the troubled areas near the southern border with Myanmar, said Lt. Col. Jaed Hossain, a military commander who was helping to install tents for displaced Buddhists.

The National Human Rights Commission chairman apologized to the Buddhist community. “We are ashamed, aggrieved, sorry and asking for your forgiveness," Mizanur Rahman told a crowd while visiting Shima Bihar temple at Ramu in Cox's Bazar.

At first some government officials accused Rohingya Muslims who were driven out from Myanmar of being behind this vandalism. A day after some reports suggested that Pakistani spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence [ISI] is believed to be mastermind behind pre-planned attack on the Buddhist monasteries in Bangladesh. These accusations remain unconfirmed and the identities of perpetrators are yet to be known.

Troops deployed promptly to avoid further attacks

 The Daily Star stated  in its 2 October  report stated as follows;

It has all the telltale signs of a preplanned attack. A much focused operation that targeted Buddhist homes and establishments. The attack spanned over six hours. And, most interestingly, nobody in Ramu — neither the Muslims nor the Buddhists — seems to know who the attackers were.  But one thing is sure: a large number of the attackers were brought in from outside in trucks, pickups and three-wheelers. It was not a spontaneous spark of fury.  

Writing in the same paper columnist   Mahfuz Anam stated that;

The natural question is: Who did it and for what purpose? Is it just to create unrest and tension in   our country? Is it to embarrass the government? Is it just to spoil the image of Bangladesh? Is it only to create misunderstanding between the majority Muslims and the Buddhists? The purpose, in our view, is far more sinister.

It is to weaken us as a people, as a country and as a culture. It is to hit at the very ethos of Bangladesh. It has been an attack on the very foundations of our state, our values and the principles of our Liberation War. And it has been done through using the religious sentiments of the majority Muslims.

As it is evident that the whole attack on the Buddhists was   quite meticulously organized and  it is reasonable to conclude that even the ’tagging’ of the picture in the account of a Buddhist youth was part of the plan.  We have reports that the offensive picture was sent from one mobile phone to another using Bluetooth technology and through the internet. 

What is of utmost importance at this stage is national unity. We must all work together to prevent our state from being weakened, our national purpose for a democratic polity being distracted, our core values of religious tolerance being subverted, our culture of celebrating diversity being destroyed and the principles of our Liberation War of establishing a multi-religious, multi-ethnic democratic state being defeated.

Writing about Buddhism in Bangladesh columnist M.A. Taher  said that Buddhism in Bangladesh is nearly as old as Buddhism itself. Evidences record   that Bangladesh was the cradle of this great religion .The Buddhists of Bangladesh are generally characterized by their spirit of sincerity, hospitality, charity and trustworthiness. These Buddhists still maintain their old tradition following Theravada Buddhism.

This unfortunate incident also provides food for thought for reasonable Sri Lankans in view of the well-orchestrated attacks on Mosques,   website campaign demonizing Islam and making ridiculous accusations that the Muslims are trying to convert this island into a Muslim country. Since recent times the island’s print media too started publishing articles distorting Islam and    provoking the mainstream Sinhalese community against Muslims.

Fortunately for the country these extremist elements were rejected by mainstream Sinhalese in almost all general elections.

For example as in the case of the recent attacks in Bangladesh even here, both Muslims and Sinhalese said, that the attack on Dambulla mosque last April was by  people   brought from outside the area .Even the destruction of more than  400 year old Muslim shrine at Anuradhapura was demolished under the watchful eyes of the police.

Now the question is who are these hired thugs? Who is organizing them? Who is financing them? What is their ulterior motive?

There is a growing fear among the Muslims that extremist elements who were behind the anti-Muslim campaign in the island may exploit the events in Bangladesh to suit their agendas. This is especially so because,  unlike in Bangladesh where prompt action were  taken to curtain the situation, here in the island   the extremists are having a free hand judging from the relative freedom with which they operate .

The knowledgeable Muslims also suspect that this anti-Muslim campaign in Sri Lanka was aggravated in the island since the arrival of Israelis, the architect of global Islamophobia   as shown by the open Jewish involvement in the films, cartoons and other such items insulting Islam, Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and Muslims worldwide.

Their strategy wherever they go has been one- throw money, free trips and other incentives to get round the media to plant articles in their favor and demonize Islam and Muslims.   Already     articles highlighting Israel in very positive forms while demonizing Islam and Muslims started appearing in most local dailies .Today this has become   common feature in some dailies. Muslim community in the island neither possess expertise nor international backing as in the case of Western media supporting Islamophobia  to deal with this campaign.

Sri Lanka has just emerged after three decades of destructive ethnic war. This is the time that every effort needs to be made by people from all communities and that too at levels to bring the communities together to remove the bitterness and hatred to pave the way for the country’s progress which should benefit all communities.

Under such situation a vicious anti-Muslim campaign with all its potentials to lead to unpleasant developments is nothing but disaster in the making for the country which cannot afford such a calamity.

Destruction of a Buddhist Temple in Bangladesh. The question is who are the culprits?

As stated earlier the forces which rule the world- Jewish lobbies, weapons industry, oil cartels, financial oligarchy and other corporate conglomerates-managed to sell their Islamophobia program successfully to justify their invasions, destruction of Muslim countries and the destruction of their resources.

India and china pose no problem for these war mongers in the global anti-Muslim campaign.

For example they managed to cultivate very good relations with anti Muslims elements in India where the political establishments in general were controlled by elements extremely hostile to Muslims.  In fact Indian interior ministry report itself disclosed that Israel transferred through Europe more than 8200 crore Indian rupees to anti-Muslim organizations such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, RSS, and its innocent looking militant front s such   Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal  RSS’s political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party,BJP  ,Shiv Sena and the like.

Thus they managed to help create an anti-Muslim atmosphere in India.

Now the question what would prevent them from doing the same thing here in the island?

In fact China is no more a problem for the west in this global anti-Muslim campaign. Following 9/11 China    employed iron fist oppressive policies, persecuted Muslims and turned   its Muslim majority mineral rich province of Xinjiang into a slave camp. Today Uighur Muslims remain a brutally oppressed people afraid to talk to even their own people. Severe restrictions were imposed on religious practices and around 8000 government trained imams preach communist party’s ethnic and religious policies. Thousands of mosques were closed down and Quranic classes were banned but even weddings, funerals, circumcision ceremonies, housing moving functions and even wearing ear rings were under surveillance.

China wanted to erase any race of Islam from Uighur province .It brought in   Chinese from other provinces and expelled all Uighur Muslims from the administration and economic activities. The former United Nations Human Rights commissioner Mary Robinson warned Chines leaders not to use 9/11 to justify their oppression and persecution in Uighur.

Thus the war mongers only need to put the Buddhist worldwide against Muslims to complete their design to strangulate the entire Muslim world. It is in this context one needs to view the growing Buddhist-Muslim conflict both here in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar.